


The Convergence

by Liebermintz



Category: Firesign Theatre, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Multi, One Chara is an OC, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Science Fiction, There Are Two Charas, the other is part of Frisk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 03:38:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liebermintz/pseuds/Liebermintz
Summary: A massive reworking of some of the ideas and settings in "The Least We Can Do is Wave to Each Other" (kept up for comparison), Asriel and his two buddies head off to their first year in college so they can get on with the next step in their lives. However, they and their new dorm mate, Kara Richter, notice things out of the ordinary, even for a world with many, many overlapping timelines, save-scumming and resets, like duplicates of figures they'd rather forget about.





	The Convergence

**Author's Note:**

> at this point, I'd rather rework The Least We Can Do rather than add more chapters to it. That fanfic had little to no direction outside of giving Asriel the panic attacks and introducing a more sorrowful and pathetic Chara variant, but I want to keep to this one.
> 
> (no this isn't Despacito 2)

the following tone is a reference tone, recorded at our operating level.

the events transcribed from these recollections took place between August 7 and December 31, 2021.

parties involved include but are not limited to:

**ASRIEL DREEMURR** \- 18 years old, male, boss monster; Prince of the Monster Kingdom (worldwide organization, hereditary); pianist and guitarist in band Hopes and Dreams; music undergrad at New York University;

**FRISK (REDACTED)** \- 18 years old, nonbinary (AMAB), human; Assistant Ambassador to the Human World (position in Monster Kingdom government, appointed); saxophonist in band Hopes and Dreams; assistant at the United Nations; political science undergrad at New York University

**MONSTER KID a.k.a. MARTIN KIDD** \- 18 years old, nonbinary (AMAB), yellow lizard-esque monster, born without arms (outfitted with cybernetic prostheses at age 15); drum programming in band Hopes and Dreams; production assistant at MTT Media; media and communications undergrad at Tisch School of Arts, New York University

**KARA RICHTER** **a.k.a. CHARA DREEMURR** \- 18 years old, female, human; survivor of attempted murder/hate crime; 1st prize in TriBeCa Student Film Festival for comedy short film  _All About Me(ve);_  former video store employee at  _The New Flesh_ (Brooklyn, NYC); media and communications undergrad at Tisch School of Arts, New York University

**SANS (REDACTED)** \- age unknown (estimated to be in the 40s), male, skeleton-esque monster; former scientist at Monster Kingdom Laboratories, Mt. Ebott, outside Jamestown, Virginia; content producer and founder of Fact Combat Media, a division of MTT Media; proud sponsor of MTT-Brand Vitamin-Enriched Ketchup-Flavored Malted Chicken Bone Meal

**TORIEL (REDACTED)**   **née TORIEL DREEMURR** \- age unknown (estimated to be anywhere from 100 to 1000 y.o.), female, boss monster; former Queen of the Monster Kingdom (worldwide organization, married into family); head of College of Education, College of William  & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia; founder and chairwoman of Human-Monster Educational Alliance (non-profit worldwide organization)

all material herein is considered sensitive and therefore should be approached with caution.

* * *

**BEGIN TRANSMISSION**

**August 7, 2021**

 

The trip had been worth it. 

Sure, it was a six-hour drive from home, but given that the family could spend some quality vacation time over in the city before their son's assigned move-in date, it wasn't so bad. Everybody came from Mt. Ebott, a peculiar mountain outside of Jamestown known for a series of folkloric tales and the inspiration of many religions created during the New Religious Movement. Events six to seven years prior corroborated elements of the folklore - namely, the existence of autonomous creatures known as monsters, organized in their own civilization, reappropriating junked technology from the surface. However, other elements - namely, the existence of metaphysical and quantum phenomena known as SAVE files and the RESET function - were not corroborated by excavations of Mt. Ebott after the discovery and integration of monsters into surface society, yet still remain popular in fringe conspiracy theorist circles.

The integration of monsters into human society had been a tough road, with most human-majority governments demanding a return to segregated public places and sundown towns due to public outcry. However, minorities within humanity - namely, people of color, women and LGBTQ - protested against proposed legalized segregation of humans and monsters, aligning with the hastily-incorporated Monster Kingdom in order to instill solidarity within monsterhood. The fight continues - however, large cities and some small towns have ensured protections for monsters, ranging the gamut from monster-human relationships to anti-discrimination ordinances. It also helped that the existence of a monster-run media empire, MTT Media, became the 2nd highest grossing media empire, introducing many humans to monsters through film, television, radio and music.

There were and still are anti-monster organizations and personalities, one of which, Prof. James Pendergrass, was known for his "resistance" towards monster anti-discrimination ordinances in Toronto and eventually grew in popularity to the point where he had a New York Times Best Seller,  _The 15 Ways to Be a Better and Wise Person_. However, he was busted and arraigned shortly afterwards due to a discovered murder spree he was involved with, although in conspiracy theorist circles, he was secretly busted due to having created a secret plan to use clones of mass shooters in order to take over the world and push more copies of his book.

It's wise to know the larger history of the integration of monsters into human society. However, this is not a history but rather a personal account.

Asriel Dreemurr had been restored from a prior flower-shaped body into one identical to his original form during the events seven years prior. However, according to his mother and stepfather, he began suffering from nightmares not long after he was reunited with his family. These nightmares included but were not limited to: his perspective from an attack whose date is somewhere in the early 2000s, where a mysterious being known as Chara ordered them to attack on what appeared to be a right-wing militia group stationed outside Mt. Ebott; his perspective regarding waking up in said flower-shaped body; and possibilities regarding his return to a flower-shaped body at the hands of the aforementioned Chara. Due to these reoccurring nightmares and suffering academic performance, Asriel began attending a childhood therapist and participating in primal scream therapy. However, his greatest recovery began when he took piano lessons, eventually growing as a musician into a locally-popular progressive rock band known as Hopes and Dreams.

Hopes and Dreams were being courted by prog-specialty labels - however, Asriel put the band on hold so he could establish himself in New York. Frisk, the Ambassador and main human party in the events seven years prior, was planning on moving up there in order to further their political influence as Ambassador by working directly with the United Nations, having gotten an apartment with Monster Kid (who went by the name "Martin Kidd" on their ID), who was working as a PA/page at the MTT Media studios off Broadway. As for Asriel, he got an apartment dorm about a block away from where Frisk and Monster Kid (hereby referred to as "Martin" for the sake of brevity) resided - most of his room and board were covered by his full-ride academic scholarship. Not only would they be able to drop by on a regular basis, Asriel could reasonably continue his relationship with Frisk and also drop by on their studio apartment.

Since Asriel's dorm was co-ed and only allowed for double occupancy per apartment dorm, the Great Goat himself was assigned a woman dorm buddy. Her name was Kara Richter and her name was in the news as of recently - the sensational media had quickly dubbed her "The Girl Who Fought Back" due to an incident she was involved in regarding an abusive ex-boyfriend of hers, resulting in what the attacker assumed was her death but was merely an unconscious state. After subduing her ex, Kara became locally popular in Norfolk, albeit her family noticed a slight personality change within her, which they and several psychiatrists attributed to her status as an abuse and attempted murder survivor. Regardless, Kara continued on track, graduated at the top of her class and decided to attend the Tisch School of Arts, itself connected to NYU, in order to further her career in film. She and Asriel connected with each other over Facebook, with Asriel becoming quick friends with her. According to chatlogs, Asriel and Kara compared each other to close childhood friends due to similar personalities. _Th_ _at should make the year less of a hassle._

Asriel sat behind the wheel of his car, a purple four-door subcompact, and listened to WABC. In the passenger's seat sat Frisk, looking up where the nearest bodega from their apartment was. In the back seat sat a few boxes, piled just correctly so Asriel could see what was behind him. And behind Asriel rode Toriel and Sans in the family SUV, with the rest of Asriel's boxes - just enough to make his half of the apartment dorm cozy - and a few things Frisk forgot to take when they moved in. 

As they drove out of the Holland Tunnel and veered onto 6th, Asriel asked, "I assure you, Kara and I aren't attracted to each other. We're just friends."

"On the Internet. What if she turns out to be a total flirt machine? Then what will you do?" Frisk inquired.  _They kinda have a point._

"I'll just report it to the RA and they'll swap her out with somebody else." Asriel was certain that Frisk's possible scenario wouldn't happen.

"What if they don't let you?" Frisk asked, unusually solemn in their voice.

"You want me to abandon my dorm and just stay with you guys? That's irresponsible, Frisk, and you know it!"

"Look, I'm just saying that we have a good thing going. I don't want this Kara person screwing it up," Frisk stated, concerned, "For the both of us."

"I'm sure that when you meet her, you'll think she's pretty cool. Besides, there's only one person who could steal my soul..." Asriel briefly exchanged glances with Frisk before focusing back on 6th.  _Traffic's not letting up it must be one hell of a move-in day._

Frisk lightly chuckled and blushed.

* * *

Asriel's apartment dorm was on the top floor of a 20-story building converted for residential use by NYU. Theoretically, this would give Asriel and Kara a breathtaking view of the sunset. However, the side they were on, they could only see spurts of it, mostly obscured by the Manhattan skyscrapers.

Theoretically, the elevators should've been working that day - a move-in day means that all amenities have to be in operation in order to get people in and out of the building. However, most of the elevators were in use by somebody else - not to mention long lines around the hall and into the reception area - so Toriel insisted that they take the stairs. 20 flights of stairs to Asriel's apartment.

As they reached the door to Dorm no. 2019, with a handwritten note by Kara plastered over the number reading "Blade Runner," Asriel was about to give out. While being lanky for a Dreemurr - given his father's musculature and his mother's homemade cooking (a mixture of quiches, pies, casseroles, and old Southern recipes that were new to her - like a Nashville-style hot chicken that was so hot that it even made Undyne drink an entire gallon of water), he wondered why he wasn't packing on the pounds.  _I guess being a flower for YEARS really boosted up the metabolism that was the only good thing it ever did for me._ Then again, Sans never seemed to gain any weight despite living on a diet of ketchup bottles, Grillby's Bar and Grill's Bucket of Hotland Heaven, and a really toned-down version of Toriel's infamous hot chicken that still had a massive kick to it (but didn't result in Undyne being rushed to the hospital) - he still tired out easily thanks to the seemingly endless flights of stairs. He even regretted even putting on his flip-flops first thing on the morning - he packed most of his shoes in the car - since now he had to deal with sore paws alongside being too tired to function.

And of course Sans was up there, waiting for them. He knew a shortcut.

"Surprised you couldn't KETCHUP with me. I MUSTARD been keeping to my exercise routine," Sans joked, always smiling.

Toriel, slightly out of breath, chuckled as she caught her breath. Same with Frisk.

Asriel gasped, trying to catch his breath, "Ha...ha...very funny...Sans."

"It's not my best material. We were  **cotton** a pickle: either wait in line for the elevator a hundred times or take everything up there." Sans laughed to himself.

Asriel sighed and took out his wallet from his cargo shorts pocket. He removed his key card - which he got at orientation and registered to his room before the ascent - and slid it into the card slot on the door. CLICK - an LED on the door lit green and the doorknob unlocked. Asriel opened the door...

...and looked at Kara as she tied a rope from the outside doorknob over to the nearby door to the water heater.

The both of them ran up to each other and hugged, like longtime friends that hadn't seen each other in decades, if not mere years.

"Hey! I didn't know you moved in before me!" Asriel laughed.

"You know me: always trying to help my friends!" Kara leaned on the counter and looked at the rest of the family outside. She waved at them.

Toriel, Sans and Frisk went in with their respective boxes and looked at Kara. 

Kara shrugged. "Put 'em anywhere. I'm sure Asriel'll know which room is his." A beat. "It's the empty one."

Sans chuckled. "Never took you for being a master of sarcasm. At least with that level of talent, you'll never been on the  **droll**."

Kara stared at Sans. Sans shrugged and walked out, Toriel following behind him.

Kara sighed and muttered under her breath, "That comedian...he thinks he's so funny but all he does is make the same stupid pun over and over."

Asriel leaned on the counter and nodded his head. "You think it's hard? Try living with him. I mean, it's not as bad as Papyrus said it was over in Snowdin, but..."

"Another thing in common." Kara walked over to one of the boxes and opened it up. Inside sat a few sentimental things - for example, Asriel's first teddy bear from Make-a-Mate Factory (complete with Sans and Toriel making terrible puns over Asriel groaning), outfit in Asriel's green-and-yellow sweater that Toriel had accidentally shrunk in the wash. Asriel walked over to Kara and pulled out a Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray box set with a note from Undyne...

"Dear Asgore Jr.,

My first time meeting you was a bit... **intense** to say the least. However, as Al and I gotten to know you

and Frisk over these past seven years, you're like one cool dude. You like magic, anime,  **BRUTAL METAL,**

and, of course, killer swords! You know that sword that you helped me forge a couple of years back

over the summer? Yeah, that's now part of the props department over on MTT Television's Mew Mew

Kissy Cutie live-action series! I mean, Al  **HATES** the show - like even more than I hated humans

back in my days in the Royal Guard - but it's such an awesome feeling knowing that your hard work 

gets to be shown in some way on TV! And it's even cooler knowing that it's something you and I got

to work on together! Anyhoo, Al and I decided to get you a little something before you went off to

the Big Apple - and this is the best we could think of. Well, Al  **INSISTED** that we get it for you since

you and Frisk really, really liked that movie with the horrifying cat-bus thing. That thing still gives me

nightmares! Anyhoo, Al and I should be in the area for a few days - Toriel insisted that we at least see

the view from the Empire State Building; besides, the props department wants me to deliver some more

of those props over to MTT's offices. I can't wait to meet Kara! She'd love my carnitas tacos with handmade

tortillas and enough heat to take you back to Hotland!

Anyway, keep fighting for those hopes and dreams and tell Frisk to  **STAY DETERMINED.**

Your bestie,

Undyne."

Kara stood over Asriel's shoulder and glanced at the letter. "God, I wish I got more letters like that when I went off."

"Isn't your family, like, cool?" Asriel asked.

"Only after the attack. Before that, they felt like I was a nuisance. But ever since I almost died, it's like they've been working overtime trying to earn my forgiveness. And, to be honest, it's kinda working."

Asriel placed the box set back in the box and walked over to Frisk.

Frisk asked, slyly chuckling, "How's your date?"

Asriel, flustered, stuttered out, "S-s-she's not my date, you silly goose! She's a good friend of mine!"

Frisk laughed, "Yeah, whatevs. I'm gonna go help your mom and Sans get some stuff," and began walking out of the room.

Kara ran over to them and placed her hand on Frisk's shoulder. "He's just a friend."

Frisk looked at Kara. "I know that. I'm just trying to rile him up. He's cute when he's mad."

"I don't want you to be upset. We're not like  **that.** " Kara sighed and looked into Frisk's eyes.

Frisk looked into hers.

Their pupils dilated.

Their hearts rapidly beat.

Their faces went pale.

"The hell's going on?" Kara asked slowly.

"Why are you out here?" Frisk asked Kara, albeit not to Kara directly.

"What do you mean, 'out here'? I don't think I've ever been in your shoes! Hell, I've never even seen half the goddamn world!" Kara frantically asked.

"No. I know you're a part of me. You've been a part of me since  **THOSE RUNS.** You told me to do them! You told me they were the only way! And you hurt me! And now I have to live with you for the rest of my fucking life!  **HOW DID YOU GET OUT?! AND WHY DO I STILL FEEL YOU INSIDE ME?!** " Frisk sank to the floor and cried.

Asriel ran over to Kara and asked, "What's going on?"

"I don't know! I honestly don't know!" Kara responded.

Asriel helped Frisk up and walked them over to his empty room before walking back to Kara.

"Look, my genderfriend's been on edge since those things that happened seven years ago. It sounds really crazy, but apparently in the Labs, some scientists discovered a save and reset function. I used it, Frisk used it, and apparently this  **THING** that's inside Frisk used it. According to them, this 'demon' made them kill everyone - like, even when they tried to play nice, they still tried to kill everybody on the surface. Like, Frisk told me that they still have nightmares of the time that this thing caused atomic annihilation because of how malevolent they were. And since then, they've been living with that chip on their shoulder ever since. According to them, the 'demon' comes out from time to time, but Frisk found a way to calm it down. Some chocolate, meditation and a garden full of buttercups."

Kara nodded her head. It seemed like she recognized most of these things.

"The odd thing is that I feel like that, only except of eating a good brick of dark chocolate just to stop some really bad impulses, I eat it because I like it. Apparently I used to hate it. Like, I remember those times, but they feel like they came from a different person."

Asriel looked at Kara in silence. "A different person. What do you mean 'different person'? Frisk is in my room, having a panic attack, and I'm pretty damn close to having one too! If you're holding back something, please tell me everything."

Kara sank to the floor and placed her head in her hands. "Asriel, I think I'm the demon."

* * *

Asriel removed one last box from his trunk and looked over at his mother and Sans. Toriel's face was that of sadness. Sans kept on smiling - he had no choice but to.

"Sad that Frisk was too tired to say goodbye. Tell them that I can't wait to see them soon." Toriel was downbeat.

"Yeah, I'll make sure to tell them. At least I got the recipe for butterscotch-cinnamon pie. You know, I'm beginning to not burn the top of the filling." Asriel nervously stated.  _Christ I have to get back there's gotta be some tea in one of my boxes_  

"Don't feel bad. I too get exhausted when I'm  **tire** **d** to my obligations all day. I mean, **wheel** gotta be on our way back to Ebott." Sans chuckled out.  _He always sees the positive in everything_

"I gotta get back. I promised to make them and Kara some tea. The electric kettle's in one of these boxes, I swear it!" Asriel ran off with the boxes out of the student parking garage towards the entrance to the dorm.

Sans shrugged. "I  **trout** he's gonna make it without dropping one of the boxes. I bet  **salmon** to one."

A distant noise from an indoor hallway. Familiar bleating.

* * *

Asriel opened one of the boxes - one of them dented - and pulled out an electric kettle, thankfully still intact, along with an assortment of teas, infusers and sweeteners. Kara walked over to Asriel and looked at the selection of teas - mostly brand-name tins of familiar blends. She fixated on a home-packed blend of Darjeeling, green and Underground-specific tea leaves labeled "Better Tea."

"What tea do you want?" Asriel frantically asked as he filled up the electric kettle.

"That 'Better Tea' looks good. I've had it before." Kara softly said, as if ashamed at what she admitted to a few moments ago.

"Of course you have. You just told me a few minutes ago that you're Chara, albeit in some sort of weirdo roundabout way."

"It's not pronounced Charr-uh. It's pronounced Care-uh. Like my name." Kara corrected.

Asriel retorted, "No, it's pronounced Charr-uh! Like charcoal!" and then he fixated on something off.  _She said something different like a different name or something_

Asriel asked slowly, "How do you pronounce C-H-A-R-A?"

A beat. Kara nervously stated, "Like the word 'care.'"

Asriel looked at Kara in silence. The electric kettle was on - water would be ready in ten minutes - but Asriel wasn't focused on that. Something about Kara seemed rather odd, especially in tandem with him trying to cycle through everything Frisk told him about his dead sibling. All Frisk would own up to were increasingly negative things regarding Chara - like they were hell to even deal with even in a passive state because, if he remembered correctly, Chara told him all the time how much they hated humanity. Like, to the point of them wanting to become a monster just to escape that stigma. Whenever Frisk got pessimistic, Asriel knew that they were close to having Chara control them - feeding them all the negativity in the world just to convince them on some futile level to reset the whole thing and start over from square one - so they'd start meditating just to keep Chara thinking about better times. And yet Kara - who had Chara inside her - didn't express any of that negativity. Sure, she had the sarcasm and hatred of puns down pat, but she didn't express a hatred of humanity, if she expressed any feelings on an entire race of autonomous beings.

Alternate realities? No, no, no, couldn't be it. After all, when the various intelligence agencies were granted access over Gaster and Alphys' papers regarding save and reset functionality, they came to the conclusion that due to the nature of those anomalies, any bleedthrough from any prior timeline couldn't happen. The reset function only bled over whenever it dealt with beings that could access the save function - and those were limited to people that had access to the Underground. The only people Asriel could think of off the top of his head that could even save in the Underground were Frisk, Chara, Sans and he. So why was it that Kara had no memory of what Frisk did? She was genuinely confused when she heard Asriel talk about the nuclear war. To further compound things, Kara was even more confused and horrified when she heard what Chara did in general. It's as if what she claimed was Chara wasn't what Frisk claimed was.

Even down to the pronunciation. Even when he was a kid, Asriel remembered pronouncing Chara's name like the word "charcoal." Like a charred piece of butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

_Wait - butterscotch-cinnamon pie._ Asriel realized something.

"I'm thinking about whipping up some butterscotch-cinnamon pie to go with this tea. Maybe help jog the memories a little bit."

Something inside Kara's eyes lightened up as she began to chuckle to herself. In between chuckles, she managed to mutter out, "Oh mom, can I get some more of that butts pie" before losing it, her laughter crescendoing. "Oh, God, and Mom was so disappointed! I can't believe I got you to say that!"

Asriel was onto something.

 

 


End file.
